by Steve Berkowitz and Jodi Upton, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve Berkowitz and Jodi Upton, USA TODAY Sports

Texas Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt currently has a $545,900 base salary. As a practical matter, it's about $65,000 higher than that.

While some major-college AD's have contracts that make no mention of incentive bonuses, Hocutt is among a group whose agreements include bonuses for reaching goals that are regularly achieved by their programs. For example, Texas' DeLoss Dodds can get $62,500 annually if the athletics program operates "with financial solvency," which seems a safe bet in a department that had more than $160 million in revenue in 2011-12.

Other AD's have contracts under which their bonuses are determined in part, or in whole, at the discretion of their school presidents. In the case of at least one of those AD's, Virginia's Craig Littlepage, positive annual evaluations have resulted in him receiving at least some bonus money in each of his 11 years on the job.

When Hocutt left Miami (Fla.) for Texas Tech early in 2011, he received a deal under which he can get an array of bonuses. One is a payment equal to 6% of his base salary if the football team participates in a non-Bowl Championship Series bowl game and another in the same amount if any of 13 specified non-revenue teams "qualify for NCAA post-season competition." At the time the contract began, Texas Tech's football team had played in a bowl game in 11 consecutive seasons and its men's or women's track and field programs alone had competed in the NCAA indoor or outdoor championships every year since 1997.

Proving nothing lasts forever, the Texas Tech football team's streak of bowl appearances ended in the 2011 season. But the team again played in a bowl game in 2012; the track and field programs' streak has remained intact, and Hocutt has so many other bonuses available that his contract also includes a provision capping his bonus pay for any one contract year at $150,000.

Some of the bonuses will be hard to reach, such as the 5% of base salary if the average paid attendance for home football, men's basketball or women's basketball averages at least 95% of paid seating capacity. The average home football attendance this past season was a school record 57,208 - but that still fell short of the 57,431 required for the bonus.

On the other hand, the women's basketball team is likely to make the upcoming NCAA tournament, and if it does, Hocutt will pocket another 6% of base salary for that alone.

Like Hocutt, Kansas State AD John Currie has so many opportunities for bonuses that his potential earnings are capped. According to Currie's deal, anytime a Kansas State head coach earns a bonus "based upon athletic-related accomplishments," Currie receives a bonus equal to 75% of the bonus paid to the head coach. Currie is limited, in any one contract year, to bonuses totaling 55% of his base salary, which, at present, is $450,000.

South Florida's Doug Woolard has a similar arrangement, only without the limits. They were removed in June 2012 by university president Judy Genshaft, who also is a member of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors - the group of college CEO's that governs college sports' top competitive classification.

In a letter offering Woolard a three-year contract extension, Genshaft wrote that she also was providing additional annual performance incentives "to demonstrate my intent and desire for success."

Woolard, who had been limited to $30,000 per year in bonuses during his first eight years at the school, now is eligible for bonuses "in equal and cumulative amounts to the performance incentives which are earned and paid to the head coaches according to those respective employment agreements."

South Florida's head coaches have incentives totaling almost $2.5 million.

Nearly two pages of Florida International AD Pete Garcia's 17-page contract are devoted to a list of incentives for which he is eligible, although he is capped at an amount equal to 15% of his more than $360,000 base salary. Many of the bonuses involve athletic, academic or fundraising achievements by the athletics program.

But Garcia's formal title is executive director of sports and entertainment, and his duties specifically include serving as the administrative director of the South Beach Wine and Food Festival. The event, according to its website, took its current form in 2002 and has grown to include more than 50 events spanning four days. Heading into its just-completed 12th edition, it had raised approximately $17 million for FIU. Garcia gets, as a bonus, 3% of the net proceeds the university receives from the event each year.

Among those at the less precise end of the bonus spectrum are Virginia's Littlepage, Michigan State's Mark Hollis and Michigan's Dave Brandon. Each has arrangements under which all or part of their potential bonuses are up to the discretion of their respective university presidents.

Littlepage, in his 12th year as the Virginia's AD, is employed under a one-page letter from university president Teresa A. Sullivan that is dated Dec. 20, 2012 and does not include an expiration date, although, according to university spokesman Lorenzo Perez, the current contract renewal date is Aug. 24, 2013.

The letter lists Littlepage's basic compensation - $582,750, including a $375,000 base salary - and outlines a possible $100,000 annual performance bonus "based on criteria to be determined but to include" a series of five general areas, ranging from leadership to academic success to rules compliance.

Asked about performance bonuses for Littlepage's prior years as AD, Perez said via e-mail that an annual performance bonus has been a part of Littlepage's contract since his hire, and that the maximum amount had been $75,000 annually until November 2011 when it was increased to the current maximum.

Perez said the year-to-year amounts that Littlepage has received as a bonus were not available, but: "Mr. Littlepage has consistently received highly favorable performance ratings. During his tenure, he has not received the full potential performance bonus in any year, which is customary for performance bonuses at the University. ... It is accurate to state, however, that Littlepage routinely has received each year some portion of the performance bonuses spelled out in his contract."

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